Disclaimer: All characters appearing in The Talcove Fiction Faction are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living, dead, undead, or who just look like they’re dead, is purely coincidental, unless otherwise stated.

Everything you will read here (except this little essay) is fiction. Please keep that in mind. I’ve had friends comment after reading some of my writing that I must be going through a break up or a break down. Just to set the record straight, I’m going through neither!!!! I’m annoyingly happy, goofy, upbeat, and silly. (Oh, and did I mention that I have a big mouth?) I’m married to a wonderful man, and anything negative that you will find in my writing about bad relationships, has nothing to do with him.

I get myself in trouble mostly with my “Songs.” These little tidbits, which I so enjoy writing, are wracked with rejection, longing, remorse, bitterness, etc., simply because these emotions lend themselves so nicely to both embarrassing effusion and trite figures of speech, all in the service of parody. My “Songs” are meant to be tongue-in-cheek, with over-the-top, sentimental lyrics typically used in Country & Western music. My mother was a farm girl from Vermont, and I grew up listening to her “cowboy” music. I used to laugh myself sick yodeling and goofing on her songs because they were so corny and maudlin. I also used to get a big kick out of Homer and Jethro (“The Thinking Man’s Hillbillies”) singing “I’ve got Tears in My Ears from Lyin’ on My Back in My Bed While I Cry Over You.” On the other hand, I’m always surprised by the lump I get in my throat and the tears that well up in my eyes, when I hear Tammy Wynette belting out the refrain from “Stand By Your Man,” but as a feminist, I’m struck with a slight horror at what the song implies! There’s a lot of raw emotion in C&W lyrics, and aside from what I see as comic expression, there’s also a lot of truth and unabashed honesty that I have come to appreciate. I’m more surprised than anyone else that I’m writing this stuff!

My short stories are mostly based on my own experiences, which I interweave with bits and pieces of dreams, nightmares, imagination, hopes, fears, other people’s experiences –you know, all the normal stuff from which fiction is cobbled together. Personally, I feel that they represent the best of what I write.

The poems I write for children are based on my own childhood memories and some of the childish thoughts that I still have, which I hope reflect the innocent joy of simply observing life and its little lessons.

I love humor and even when the situation doesn’t call for it, I try to sneak it in anyway, just because humor is to life what yeast is to bread. Humor is uplifting and it helps us to rise above the tragedies and the petty problems that continually distort our perspective and let the air out of our psychic tires. Humor has a way of making us feel safe, and we need it most when it’s just not there—something like a parent, a sibling, a lover, a friend, a pet—something like love.

Because I often write in the first person, people assume that my writing is autobiographical—and a lot of is, but as I said above, it’s still fiction—especially those lousy songs!!!!